I think that you must consider another blockchain. If you wanna try to create a new project that means you are new in the crypto. You can try to move from ethereum blockchain that will cost you bunch of money just to pay the transaction fees.
Why don't you consider issuing tokens on other chains?
I do agree with your statement and it seems like that if he doesn't even know about that. That's why he was taking ethereum blockchain to issue his new token for his new project. It seems like he was a newbie that was new in the crypto and think ethereum blockchain is still good to be used as token issuance.